EFE News Briefs for Monday, July 8

Ten people died when a small seaplane crashed at the airport at Soldotna, Alaska, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said.

The nine passengers on board the air-taxi died along with the pilot when the plane went down, but it is still not clear if Sunday's accident occurred during takeoff or landing.

According to the Soldotna police department, when emergency crews arrived at the crash site, they found the plane engulfed in flames.

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Venezuela receives formal asylum request from Snowden

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that his government had received a formal asylum request from U.S. former CIA analyst Edward Snowden, who has been staying in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since June 23.

"An asylum request letter arrived" from Snowden, Maduro told reporters after meeting with Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli. Snowden, he said, "will have to decide when he will fly here."

Last Friday, Maduro publicly announced his offer of "humanitarian asylum" for Snowden, accusing the United States of "unleashing madness" and "persecution" after the jet carrying Bolivian President Morales was denied overflight and landing rights by several European countries who feared that Snowden might be on board the plane.

When asked about possible U.S. reprisals if Venezuela takes Snowden in, Maduro said that "the U.S. doesn't govern the world. We're a free and sovereign country."

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9 Die in bus accident in Spain

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The driver of the bus that crashed near the central Spanish city of Avila was arrested following the accident, which killed nine people and injured 22 others, officials said.

The 54-year-old driver, whose name was not released, was arrested for falling asleep at the wheel, Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said in a press conference.

Six of the 22 people injured in the crash are listed in serious condition, officials said.

The driver, who was not injured in the accident, admitted that he fell asleep, investigators told Efe.

The man tested negative for alcohol and drugs, investigators said.

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At least 6 dead in India hotel collapse

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At least six people died, 20 were injured and many others were trapped in the ruins when an old hotel collapsed in the southern city of Secunderabad, an Indian police source told Efe.

The two-story City Light hotel collapsed about 6:45 a.m.

According to witnesses quoted by Indian media, there could be about 40 people among the ruins of the building and firemen and other workers are trying to rescue them.

However, the police chief in Hyderabad, the metropolitan area that includes Secunderabad, Anurag Sharma, in talking to the press reduced to 20 the number of people thought to be trapped in the rubble.

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PAN-PRD coalition claims victory in Mexico's Baja California state

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The coalition formed by the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, and the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, claimed victory in the gubernatorial election held over the weekend in Mexico's Baja California state, while the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said it would wait for the final results to be released later this week.

The coalition, according to the Preliminary Election Results Program, or PREP, won 47.16 percent of the vote and the PRI garnered 44.14 percent, with 96.43 percent of the ballots tallied, in Baja California.

The governorship of the northwestern state of Baja California, a state whose control the PRI lost in 1989, was the biggest prize up for grabs in Sunday's election.

Some problems were detected with the way the PREP was tallied and the final results from the election will not be available until Wednesday.

The coalition's gubernatorial candidate, Francisco "Kiko" Vega de Lamadrid, told Televisa that he was certain he won.

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6 Killed in suicide bombing in Pakistan

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Six people were killed and a dozen others wounded in a suicide attack at a gas station in the northwestern town of Doaba, a Pakistani police source told Efe.

The assailant slammed an explosives-packed car into the fuel pumps, detonating a massive explosion a police officer in the Hangu district said.

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Egyptian religious leader fears civil war

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Egyptians must forge a pact of national reconciliation or risk civil war, the country's senior Muslim cleric said after dozens died in a confrontation between the military and Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, said in a statement that the armed forces need to commit to returning Egypt to democracy within six months.

The leader of the most prestigious institution in Sunni Islam demanded the formation within two days of a national reconciliation panel and the launch of an independent investigation into Monday's deadly incident outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard.

At least 42 people were killed and 300 others injured when armed men opened fire on Muslim Brotherhood supporters gathered around the building where they believe Morsi is being held.

The protesters blame the security forces, but the military says the massacre was the work of unspecified "terrorists."

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Death toll at 13 in Canada train derailment

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The Quebec Provincial Police said that the death toll in the train derailment and explosion in the eastern Canadian town of Lac-Megantic now stands at 13 after eight more bodies were discovered.

Police also raised the number of missing in the Saturday morning disaster from 40 to 50.

The spokesman for the Provincial Police, Benoit Richard, said at a press conference that the additional eight bodies were located in areas of Lac-Megantic which rescue and recovery teams had not been able to access until Monday.

Authorities also confirmed that the majority of the people killed when the trail derailed and blew up in the center of town will have to be identified by DNA tests, adding that relatives of anyone missing after the incident had been contacted to provide DNA samples.